ASUS GTX550 Ti DirectCU TOP Review

RHKCommander959 - March 15, 2011
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Testing:

The testing consists of running Aliens vs. Predator, Metro 2033, Crysis Warhead, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Just Cause 2, Unigine Heaven Benchmark 2.1, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, 3DMark 11 Professional, 3DMark Vantage, and temperature/power consumption testing. Three common resolutions are used for all the tests with 4AA and 16AF settings, but the 3DMark tests have four resolutions/runs. After a run through all the tests, the card is overclocked to roughly its maximum stable capabilities and then tested again. Settings stay the same for each card tested so the results can be compared. All testing is done on similar hardware running 64-bit Windows 7. The charts are all organized in terms of best to worst performance.

Processor: Intel i7 920 @ 3.60GHz
Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth X58
Memory: Mushkin Redline DDR3 1600MHz 6-8-6-24
Video Card: ASUS GTX550 Ti DirectCU TOP
Power Supply: Mushkin 800 watt modular power supply
Hard Drive: 1 x Seagate 7200.12 1TB SATA
Optical Drive: LG DVD-RW
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Case: Hiper Osiris

Comparison Video Cards:

Overclocking:

ASUS GTX550 Ti DirectCU TOP 1100/2200/1300

Using the stock voltage of 1.1V, I was able to push past 1 GHz without even trying. The maximum voltage that SmartDoctor allowed was 1.185V. With the voltage around 1.165V to 1.175V, I was able to test over 1.1GHz up to 1.15GHz or higher, although it wasn't stable enough for testing even with maximum voltage. Some games would run for quite a while, yet others would freeze moments in. 1.1GHz was fairly stable, although there was a hiccup or two. Temperatures were great the whole time and changing thermal paste shaved a few more degrees off. I tried for over 1300MHz on the memory, but I wasn't able to tune it to the maximum as it hard locked when testing at higher speeds. So I ran it with a fairly stable 1100MHz core and 1300MHz memory, earning first and third out of the whole group!

Maximum Clock Speeds:

To find the maximum clock speeds I test overclocked settings through a few games with high settings, giving the card extended exposure to verify stability. If the settings are unstable then speeds are backed off and the process repeated until no artifacts or crashing occurs. Then the card is put through the OCC test suite.